Procedure codes are used as a tool in the healthcare industry to describe surgical and non-surgical procedures performed in a clinical setting. Procedure coding is an industry-accepted uniform method of translating written descriptions of medical procedures, surgeries and treatment into specific alphanumeric codes for classification, specifically for tracking and billing purposes. These codes are commonly referred to as CPT codes, which are owned by the American Medical Association (AMA), for which this process makes no claim. The codes are typically assigned by a health professional trained in medical coding such as a clinical coder or Health Information Manager.
Various types of systems and related software have been provided to assist with procedural coding. Many of these systems are referred to as “encoders” and function as an electronic version of a procedural coding manual. For procedural coding of certain vascular procedures, the process of coding is complex and time consuming. For example, the user was often burdened with sifting through multiple dropdown lists of selections. Also, in previous systems used for coding procedures for a vascular system, each vessel's order had to be hard-coded for each access site, leading to hundreds of combinations of body systems that were mostly duplicates. Improvements in this field of technology are desired.
While certain preferred illustrative embodiments will be described herein, it will be understood that this description is not intended to limit the subject matter to those embodiments. On the contrary, it is intended to cover all alternatives, modifications, and equivalents, as may be included within the spirit and scope of the subject matter as defined by the appended claims.